Sawt Falasteen - Malawi votes in battle of two presidents as economic crisis bites

Thousands of people waited under trees or outside schools at outdoor polling stations across the mostly rural country for a vote focused on the faltering economy of one of the poorest countries in the world.

Seventeen candidates are running for president but observers say the race is between outgoing Lazarus Chakwera and Peter Mutharika who also duelled in the 2019 vote that was nullified over tampering and followed by a rerun.

Chakwera, a 70-year-old pastor, and law professor Mutharika, 85, have campaigned on improving the agriculture-dependent economy battered by drought in 2024 and a 2023 cyclone.

In urban centres, many young people -- who make up around 60 percent of the 7.2 million registered voters -- expressed a desire for change.

"There is anger in us," said Ettah Nyasulu, 28, a waitress in the capital Lilongwe, before heading to vote.

"I want to change this government. I want young people to be in good jobs, to have opportunities to change our lives," she said.

Inflation is running at above 27 percent, while the costs of living surged 75 percent in 12 months, according to reports citing the Centre for Social Concern, a non-governmental organisation.

Around 70 percent of the majority young population of 21 million people live in poverty, according to the World Bank.

Chakwera stood in line to vote with hundreds of locals at his humble home village of Malembo, about 56 kilometres (35 miles) northeast of Lilongwe, soldiers standing guard nearby.

"Sometimes he helps us by giving us maize. He is our saviour," said Tilore Chimalizeni, 58, a farmer and single mother of four from the village who also cares for two orphans.

- 'Disappointments' -

The election is also for seats in parliament and local wards. Polling stations close at 4:00 pm (1400 GMT) and ballot counting starts immediately, with the results expected as early as Thursday.

With a winner of the presidential ballot requiring more than 50 percent of votes, a run-off within 60 days is likely.

Voting was proceeding smoothly with all the more than 15,000 polling booths open, Malawi Election Commission chief Annabel Mtalimanja told reporters mid-morning.

"It's a very peaceful election process. People have gathered in large numbers," Malembo MP Lawrence Chaziya told AFP.

Chakwera and Mutharika have both been accused of cronyism, corruption and economic mismanagement in their first terms but other candidates -- including the only woman, former president Joyce Banda -- did not appear to be attracting significant support, according to polls.

Voters are confronted with a choice between "two disappointments", said political commentator Chris Nhlane.

"Both men embody unfulfilled potential and dashed hopes, yet Malawians must still choose a lesser liability between them," he told AFP.

Chakwera, from the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) that led the nation to independence from Britain in 1964, has pleaded in his campaign for continuity to "finish what we started", flaunting several infrastructure projects.

"There have been complaints about the cost of living, the lack of resources, food scarcity," he told a rally on Saturday in Lilongwe, a MCP support base.

"I have heard all of them and I have taken your words to heart. We will fix things," he said.

Chakwera was elected with around 59 percent of the vote in the 2020 rerun but five years later there is some nostalgia for Mutharika's "relatively better administration", said analyst Mavuto Bamusi.

"I want to rescue this country," Mutharika told a cheering weekend rally of his Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in the second city of Blantyre, the heartland of the party that has promised a "return to proven leadership" and economic reform.

D.AbuRida--SF-PST